Etc.: A musical hike, titled "Enchanted Lakes: Music and Pond Ecology" and guided by a naturalist from the Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, 5:30-8 p.m. Tuesday; Café Phil, a free, open rehearsal, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at The Dairy Center, Boulder; Michael Butterman presents the 2015-2016 season, free to concert ticket-holders, 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Macky.

Béla Bartók's "Concerto for Orchestra" is an established orchestral masterpiece, a brilliant tour de force for the ensemble, and one that rarely fails to thrill audiences. Written in 1943, it is not exactly a novelty. Its composer is recognized as one of his century's greatest musical figures.

Why then, does the piece still manage to strike fear into the hearts of orchestral management when a conductor tries to program it?

"I've really wanted to do the piece for a while," Butterman said, "and I think the orchestra is in a place where it can effectively close our season."

He added that the five-movement work literally spotlights the entire orchestra individually and collectively, hence its unusual title of "concerto" for the whole group instead of "symphony."

Even though the Phil's concerts this season have all been near-sellouts, and despite the internal virtues of Bartók's work, Butterman said he knew he had to couple it with a surefire favorite.

That would be Antonín Dvorák's beloved cello concerto.

"It's the most popular concert work for cello for good reasons," Butterman said. "It has grandeur and symphonic heft, and it's rewarding in a way that not all concertos are."

The pairing has geographical and musical connections. Both works are from Central Europe (Bartók was Hungarian; Dvorák, Czech), and they each provide a different concept of the term "concerto." The Dvorák is the quintessential solo concerto, extraordinarily rewarding for both the soloist and the orchestra.

Cellist Zuill Bailey, making his first appearance in Boulder as a solo artist, is described by Butterman as "an intense, committed performer, assured and confident in his playing, but collegial, with an air of spontaneity."

Bailey, whose primary professional positions are in the two widely divergent locales of El Paso, Texas, and Sitka, Alaska, spoke at length with the Camera about his artistic ideals and about playing the Dvorák concerto.

He said that as a traveling musician, he didn't feel as if he was making a lasting impact in a particular place.

As artistic director of El Paso's Pro-Musica Chamber Music Festival, he said, he gained the opportunity to see something through and sculpt the culture of a city. While El Paso is his home base and he is on the music faculty at the University of Texas-El Paso, he still maintains an active travel schedule.

The summer music festival he directs in Sitka happens "just when I'd want to leave a scorching El Paso, and Alaska is paradise at that time."

Bailey said his performance schedule often is dictated by projects such as recordings.

"I recorded the Prokofiev Symphony-Concerto for cello in a live performance earlier this year and scheduled it heavily in preparation," he said. "My colleagues are open to such requests, "even when the piece is not a familiar warhorse."

But the Dvorák concerto is special to Bailey, who said, "I usually request it from conductors on important occasions."

Such an occasion was the presentation to Bailey of a Johns Hopkins Distinguished Alumni award at a concert of the university's Peabody Symphony.

"That was the piece I just had to play in that environment," Bailey said. He also called his live recording of the concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony something "incredibly special."

"Michael Butterman is one of my dearest friends, and I can't wait to share this piece with him," Bailey said.

The two large pieces are preceded by the traditional overture-length concert opener. Butterman has chosen Russian composer Anatol Lyadov's "The Enchanted Lake," a brief symphonic poem.

"He's primarily known as the composer who turned down the ballet commission for 'The Firebird,' which eventually went to Stravinsky," Butterman said. Lyadov's most well-known piece is probably "Baba Yaga," which, according to the conductor, shows up on a lot of Halloween concerts.

Lyadov had talent but was not industrious enough to reach his potential. To Butterman, "The Enchanted Lake," a piece of Russian impressionism, is like a closing "pendant" to the 2014-15 "Season of Legends."

"An opener is effective if it is either big and loud or calm and reflective," he said, "and I thought that with two large epics on the program, calm and reflective would be the best option here."

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